


Les étudiants

by lovliboneless



Series: Fond de l'Étang [1]
Category: Les Misérables - All Media Types
Genre: 1944, AU, Multi, Reformatory Institution AU, Slow Build
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-12-05
Updated: 2013-12-08
Packaged: 2018-01-03 12:34:32
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1070523
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lovliboneless/pseuds/lovliboneless
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It was the year of 1944 and France had only been liberated from the German occupation when Enjolras first entered the reformatory.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Enjolras

  1. Enjolras



It was the year of 1944 and France had only been liberated from the German occupation when Enjolras first entered the reformatory, he was 13 at the time and full of hatred towards his rich parents who had taken high up positions inside the Vichy’s government.

Even though he had to be carried here by force, he certainly didn’t regret having called his parents “collaborationists” in front of Allied officials. Surely it had hurt a little having seen the utter disappointment and borderline hatred in the faces of his parents when their prize son stood up against them, but then again, it wasn’t so much against them (although it was) as against all the injustices committed under the Vichy government.

The only thing that Enjolras regretted was not being old enough to be taken seriously, since all his political statements were laughed off and marked, as his mother put it, as “a child’s very vivid imagination”, but then again, that wasn’t so much his fault.

As soon as they’d gotten home of course, his father had outright hit him  in the stomach, leaving him out of air for a couple of seconds, and that,  along with a single tear rolling down his mother’s face as she walked up the stairs, was the last time he’d see his parents in a very long time.

It was until the family’s chauffeur had carried him into their car, that he understood that he would be sent away. To another country perhaps? He couldn’t let himself be carried away though! Patria, France, his country needed him. And he would answer to her calling! With this in mind he tried to kick his way open through all the way until the car stopped in front of a tall white gate. The chauffeur certainly didn’t kick him out of the car, but it looked like a near thing, as an old man with a cane approached the gate.

“You must be Monsieur Enjolras” Enjolras was taken aback with the sincerity of the smile with which the old man had said his name, he was used to seeing all sorts of fake smiles, and even had them all catalogued.

He chose to ignore the question, as it was quite obvious that the old man already knew the answer, and started examining the place.

“Is this a jail? Am I going to be tortured?” He would be lying if he said he wasn’t frightened at all at the prospect, but he had already thought about it before he spoke against his parents, so if this was his destiny, then so be it.

The old man seemed genuinely startled at this, which, at this point was relieving.

“Of course not! Didn’t your parents tell you where you were going?”

“No.” He didn’t dislike the old man, but it was clear that he didn’t trust him, seeing the circumstances in which they had met.

“Well, this is Fond de l’Etang, a reformatory institution for young men. I know this isn’t the best place to be for a boy your age, but I hope you’ll try to make friends and behave yourself so you can get out of here soon” He didn’t know what he was expecting, but a reformatory surely wasn’t it, although it seemed obvious now, as, for the government officials, he was just a badly behaved child with a lot of imagination.

The old man shook him from his reverie by patting his head softly.

“By the way, I’m Fauchelevent. I’d help you with your luggage but as you see…” He gestured towards his cane. “I’m not much help”

“Right” And with that he entered the tall white gate and into the bottom of the pond.

 

 


	2. The beginning

2.

Enjolras had been in the reformatory exactly one month when the older boys stopped calling him the new kid and opted for just calling him “the girl”. It was, of course, meant to be a jab for him, but, even though he didn’t like girls his age in general, he didn’t mind being called one as he thought quite a lot of them were upstanding citizens.

When he’d first arrived at Fond de l’Étang, he’d thought the reformatory would be full of people like him, political prisoners, but right from the first person he’d met that day he understood that he couldn’t be more wrong. The moment he’d been shown towards his bed, he turned to see the student that occupied the bed to his right arching his brows at him.

“Those are some nice shoes” He smiled.

 “Uh. Thanks?” He tried to be polite, he didn’t want enemies this soon in his imprisonment. Although it was clear that he couldn’t care less for his shoes.

“I’m Montparnasse” He extended his hand towards Enjolras, arching his eyebrows.

 Enjolras shook his hand eager to meet alliances that would like to form part of the political group he wanted to create.

 “Enjolras. Why are you here?” He was nothing if not direct.

 This seemed to surprise Montparnasse, who laughed somberly.

 “If you must know…I took some nice pants and shoes from a gentleman some months ago. It was purely out of necessity, but of course you know nothing of that, looking at those shoes and your clothes.” He eyed him up and down.

 “You had no clothes then?” Enjolras strived to understand the abased, so opportunities such as this were precious to him. 

“Looking good isn’t easy, you should know!” This answer was cryptic for Enjolras as the somber thief, Montparnasse, stood up.

 Enjolras stood up quickly as well. “It must have been hard for you to not find anywhere to work and to fall to such social illness!”

 Montparnasse frowned at this, appearing menacing for the first time since he’d met him.

“There’s always work for the young huh? Well fuck you, I like my profession well enough. Now go away and take your social illnesses with you, you’ve only served to bore me.”

Enjolras sighed heavily as he stood from his bed and walked towards the end of the room. He’d seen the abased with his own eyes now, he’d seen some of its illnesses and he made a commitment with himself that he would save them, he would save people like Montparnasse from the unjust society that forced him to fall to such an extent.

As he’d approached the door a hand on his shoulder stopped him short. 

The student smiled gently down at him. He was, at least 10 cm. higher than him. “But you know, I think the ones at fault for him being like that are the ones in the government and their lack of interest in education”

 Enjolras smiled in understanding. “Precisely” At last he’d found someone who shared his views!

 “My name is Combeferre.” He squeezed his shoulder gently.

 “I’m Enjolras” This was the second time he had introduced himself in the day, but it was by far the most pleasant.

“You seem like a nice person Enjolras. That’s something hard to find here.” Combeferre turned his head towards the left.

 “We should hurry towards the dining room, otherwise we won’t get any food, or worse, the Directeur might catch us arriving late”

 “Is he really that bad?” He’d heard some other students whispering about him with fear earlier that day.

 “Worse” Combeferre laughed at Enjolras stricken expression.

 “Come on” Enjolras followed Combeferre willingly towards the dining room, which ended up being not so much as a dining room as two pairs of long wooden tables broken at several places, and a small table on the center with several adults sitting in them. 

Almost all the tables were full of students, leaving him and Combeferre looking for somewhere to sit.

 A hand sprung up from the back row of the left table. Combeferre smiled and gestured for him to walk towards the hand. 

When they’d reached the end of the table one of the students sitting in it grabbed Combeferre by the arm in a hug like gesture and with a laugh made him sit down immediately, occupying the last spot available in it. 

“Enjolras, this is Bahorel and Feuilly” He signaled a, frankly, enormous, student, with blond hair and a pair of apparently new scars in his forehead. Bahorel just laughed.

 “You’ve made friends with the new one Ferre?”

 “Ugh. Way to make friends Bahorel” The student next to the blond one, a ginger who had a constant look of tiredness turned to look at him with a smile. 

“Anyway, I think there’s no more space in the table, but don’t worry, I can switch places if you want to stay here with Ferre and Bahorel”

 “No, no .I’ll go look for another place. We can see each other after dinner. I wanted to ask you guys some things” Enjolras smiled a little at them and went off to look for a place to sit down on the other table.

He measured his options, there was one spot available next to Montparnasse, which frankly, he wasn’t interested in taking, and a tiny spot next to a stranger at the end of the table. 

“Hey. May I sit here?” Enjolras suddenly felt like the air had been knocked out from his lungs. The stranger at the end of the table was stunning. He wasn’t handsome, by any conventional means of course, he had too many marks in his light dark skin and had enormous dark circles under his eyes as if he hadn’t slept in a long time; but at the same time, he looked very strong, and his raven hair, not kempt at all, somehow fit perfectly with his eyes. 

Enjolras hadn’t realized he’d been staring for too long until the stranger waved at him.

“Earth to Apollo…I said you could sit here. Unless you mind sitting with a Romani? Which in that case, there’s an empty spot next to Montparnasse” The stranger gave him a bitter smile.

“What? What? No. Uh. I’d like to sit here if you let me” Apparently his skill for words abandoned him when he needed it the most.

The stranger smiled a little further, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Make yourself at home Apollo”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Visit me @ tumblr lovliboneless.tumblr.com :)

**Author's Note:**

> So uh. This is sort of like a prequel to Fond de l'Étang in which we see how each of Les Amis entered the Reformatory :D Hope you enjoy! :) Their ages will be progessing as each of les amis arrives :D etc. u know. Visit me on tumblr! @ lovliboneles.tumblr.com


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